What are we intended to think is the reason for Ruth's visits to the clinic, or at any rate the first visit we see?
SONNY Is it something bad?
RUTH No. Something... dreary...
Treatment for depression due to her marriage? Or something more tangibly 'bad' after all? (Either of which might make her more inclined to take a chance on Sonny.)
I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken.
She couldn't have babies ?
shareThis is my main thought. A baby would be a very strong draw for such a lonely woman, someone to love and take care of, a reason for being. Not being able to bear a child, even if it's from that otherwise inadequate husband of hers, would have added to depression. A child would have brought her a lot of joy — she could make a baby room, wallpaper it blue, hang mobiles, spent every living moment thinking of and caring for that child.
Sonny ended up being that for her, until he wasn't. In that final scene, she showed her fury for him dumping her like that, then final resignation that this was all she had, just like his realization that he was never leaving that town and had already become a part of it's storied history.
I also thought other illnesses, but she never got sick. She only shock during that final scene with the coffee pot, but that was because her anger was boiling up in her.
MS? she was shaking a lot.
shareIt wasn't important to the plot. It was just an excuse to have a situation to bring her and Sonny together.
shareThe movie doesn’t say, so we don’t know
share